EDUCATION COSTS

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 7, 8 July 1931, Page 12

EDUCATION COSTS

RUMOURED REDUCTION

PLEA FOR PRIMARY

SCHOOLS

Complaints that the primary schools were being detrimentally stinted in. the mafl.cL' of expenditure were made to the Minister of Education (the Hon. H. Atmore) last evening by a deputation from the Wellington School Committees' Association and Educational Federation. It' was contended that there should be no curtailment .of last year's grants. The Minister promised to place the representations before' Cabinet. The deputation was introduced by Mr. R. A. Wright, M.P., and associated with him were Messrs. W. H. Field, W. Nash,1 R. Semple, R. M'Keen, and C. H. Chapman, M.P.'s. Mr. L. Hennessey said there was a danger if expenditure were reduced that the primary school system would be put back several years.' Classes weve now very / large, and constant changes of teachers were hindering the progress of the children. He made a nlea for more i relieving teachers^ and stressed the fact that capitation fees were inadequate. A rumour was current that when the Estimates were being considered, there was a possibility of the Education Vote being .cut down, and they asked the Minister '.to stand four-square against any reduction so far as the primary schools were concerned. . . Mr. F. L. Combs, headmaster of the Mount Cook School, said the loss of the additional teachers granted last year in excess of requirements would be felt more iin the large towns than in the country i districts. Town classes had become large, and there should be no reduction in staff. At present there were a large number of teachers unemployed, and it was a serious economic waste having . teachers well trained and well equipped outside the schools. He had no hesitation in saying that primary education had suffered from parsimony. He suggested a conference of the iuterested organisations with the Minister and the Treusury, with a view to showing the Treasury just what was being done in the cutting into existing educational services and the effect of these economies. In reply, the Minister said-that a wise expenditure on education was the best investment a nation could make. Every teacher who had been appointed in excess of the regulations, had been required. He did not think that the Government was spending too much on education, although it might not be getting in some cases 20s worth of value in the £1. He knew that the allowances* to committees were inadequate and that anomalies existed in respect of teachers' . salaries, but these weaknesses could be k remedied only in terms of money. Although' a large sum was spent on education in proportion to the population, it was not nearly so great as the cost of ignorance might be. ' He was-struck with the idea of a conference as suggested by Mr. Combs.